Functional

Functional Orthopedic/Orthodontics

Functional orthopedic orthodontics emphasizes how the muscles, jaw joints and teeth affect one another. A proper meshing of the teeth to function in harmony with the jaw joints and muscles will allow the teeth to wear and function evenly, be stable and decrease any trauma to the surrounding supporting bone. Narrow dental arch forms are properly developed to a full contour enhancing breathing and appearance. The “functional jaw orthopedic approach” is a very important approach that will help you achieve your goals of an improved profile and facial appearance, as well as the establishment of a proper joint position that ensures optimum TMJ health, appearance and comfort.

The functional approach is preferred by parents and children alike, over the surgical (jaw surgery) approach because we can move the lower jaw forward while the child is still growing with jaw repositioning appliances.

With the use of dental appliances, a proper tongue and jaw position is created to eliminate negative forces on the teeth. Our functional orthopedic orthodontic treatment involves aligning the upper and lower arches by use of appliance therapy, and then aligning the individual teeth via the use of braces. The long-term results of this combined type of treatment, as opposed to using only standard braces, tend to be more esthetically pleasing, stable, and shortens treatment time. Crowded teeth with seemingly little space should certainly be properly evaluated to prevent permanent tooth extractions.

The combination of these two phases of treatment ensures beautiful faces, full lips, straight teeth and outstanding profiles principal components that all the leading clinicians of functional jaw orthopedics are teaching.

State of the art, Computerized Diagnostics, Functional Jaw Scans, and a Cephalometric Archial Analysis are all used before beginning the treatment:

to determine the proper jaw position

to determine an optimal muscle length, function and comfort

to identify a correct treatment end-point for proper tooth positioning.

Our approach is to look at the fundamental and structural components of the face, which includes the jaw, the jaw joints and muscles. Once we can determine were these structures want to naturally function with the least strain, the teeth can then be moved to a proper position for function, stability and appearance.